Melanoma, a cancer that develops from melanocytes, easily metastasizes and spreads though the lymphatic system or blood, making it difficult to treat, and thus, is the most lethal form of skin cancer. Exposure to ultraviolet light is the principle cause of melanoma. Other factors such as family inheritance and hypo-immunity may also cause melanoma. Currently, the primary method for treating melanoma clinically is surgical resection. For the treatment of patients whose tumor cannot be resected completely or for patients who cannot afford surgery, immunotherapy and chemotherapy are generally used instead. However, immunotherapy and chemotherapy are expensive and have severe side effects (including emesis, alopecia, fatigue, hemorrhaging and anemia), and are not effective for some patients in the late stage of melanoma. Therefore, there is a necessity and urgency to develop a drug or a method for treating melanoma effectively.
Inventors of the present invention found that N-trans-grossaminde (i.e., the compound of formula (I) of the present invention) is effective in inducing apoptosis of malignant melanoma cells, and thus, can be used for treating melanoma.